Absolutely ridiculous how Faf du Plessis will not be playing for South Africa in T20 WC: Michael Vaughan

Cricketer-turned-expert Michael Vaughan is bemused on former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis’ omission from the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup squad. Vaughan’s comments came after Du Plessis starred with the bat for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Friday (October 15). The CSK opener scored a classy 86 and laid the platform for his team to post 192.

He also ended the tournament with a humungous 633 in 16 matches and finished as the second-highest run-scorer in the 14^th edition of the IPL. Du Plessis’s superb batting at the top order along with Ruturaj Gaikwad was one of the pivotal reasons for CSK’s impressive run in the tournament, and on the D-day too he continued his rich vein of form and enabled CSK to win its fourth title. Cricket South Africa (CSA) selectors thought it otherwise and have overlooked him in the 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup.

Vaughan took to Twitter to let his frustration go and said, “Absolutely ridiculous how Faf will not be playing for South Africa in the T20 Cup.”

Absolutely ridiculous how @faf1307 will not be playing for @OfficialCSA in the T20 World Cup !!!

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) October 15, 2021

Faf du Plessis blitz downs KKR

Speaking about the summit clash, only the toss went in favor of KKR skipper Eoin Morgan as everything from there belonged to CSK. Du Plessis started things off slowly, and Ruturaj Gaikwad took on the role of aggressor. The South African batter then slowly started to mix caution with aggression. On a sapping and harsh Dubai heat, Du Plessis’ spirit and indefatigable appetite for runs allowed CSK to post a challenging score on the board. There were some moments in his innings where he was feeling the heat but a handy little cameo from Moeen Ali’s unbeaten 37 off 20 balls helped CSK post a mighty 192.

Du Plessis’ innings were the cornerstone for CSK lifting its fourth title. It was the same story for KKR as their middle-order batters failed to get going after the opening batters Venkatesh Iyer and Shubman Gill gave the team yet another rousing start. After the opening stand of 91 runs, the other batters were mostly out for single-digit scores as KKR fell short of the target by 27 runs.